What's wrong with me, Mr Sterling?
2006-11-09
MR STERLING, what do you think caused this allergy on my face?
“You got that from sticking your nose into other people’s business.”
That is the kind of dry humour people have enjoyed from the man who stood behind the counter dispensing advice in his pharmacy in Lady Grey Street, Paarl, for 50 years.
For all that time his wife kept her hand on the accounts in the office only metres from her husband’s dispensary at Westerman’s (now DisChem).
Selwyn Sterling (83) and his wife Beryl (84) decided two months ago that “the time had come” to retire from the business.
It was time to listen to their heads, and not their hearts, and sell their fruit farm Simonshoogte near Klapmuts, where they had been living for 30 years.
“We have mangos - that we don’t eat, we take to the market. We have all kinds of fruit that we can choose from. And our Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz grapes - they’re good - go to Glen Carlou.”
The couple plan to move to De Oude Renbaan retirement village in Paarl, where many of their friends with whom they played badminton when they first moved to Paarl nearly half a century ago, now reside.
Beryl says she never was one for house work, but she managed the long hours at the office with the aid of an automatic oven.
“Selwyn loves roasts,” she smiles.
Mr Sterling worked in a pharmacy in Epping when Harry Westerman started the business in Lady Grey Street in 1928.
“That was the time that Clicks across the street was Holmes Motors, and before that ox wagons were made at that site,” he remembers.
Selwyn worked with his predecessor from 1956 until he died in 1973, and then took over the pharmacy.
The business grew. He opened two other pharmacies, Boland Pharmacy in Paarl South and Wynland Pharmacy in Paarl North. He also bought Riebeeck Pharmacy in central Paarl.
Their son Kevin joined them in the business and the Sterlings opened two pharmacies in Canal Walk.
“The regulations regarding phamacies and dispensing that have since come into being didn’t do a lot of good. It was not well thought-out. The smaller guys just could not cope.”
In 2003 came the merger with DisChem, of which Kevin is a director. They now own DisChem branches in Somerset Mall, Paarl Mall, Cavendish Square and Tyger Valley.
The line of Sterling pharmacists does not end with Kevin - his son Wayne is already managing the Tyger Valley shop.
“Work is not work if you enjoy what you’re doing,” Selwyn offers the wisdom of years.
For five decades the couple left home shortly after seven in the morning, and returned home shortly after seven at night.
“But we’ve slowed down now,” Beryl says.
Since retiring they have spent two weeks in the Kruger National Park, and next week they will holiday in Plettenberg Bay.
Although he no longer sails himself, Selwyn follows the sport of yachting with the younger Sterlings, his son and daughter and four grandchildren, now all involved with sailing.
Selwyn was also formerly an active member of the Paarl Mountain Club, and although it is still going strong, “we are not going so strong anymore.”
Selwyn has fond memories of his life behind the pharmacy counter.
“We had a wonderful job. We know half of Paarl. We had a great many friends visiting us in the pharmacy all day long. Paarl customers are not difficult. You can make a success of a business if you are people-orientated.”
How do Selwyn and Beryl Sterling remain so radiantly happy and healthy? Might it be the years spent among tonics and tablets?
“We don’t need pills,” the couple laugh. “It is the fact that we both worked.
Adds Selwyn with a smile, “We’ve been married for 60 years - but that did not need working on.”
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